Two out of every three cells at HMP Wandsworth cannot detect a fire, and the government has abandoned its own deadline to fix that.
Written evidence to a House of Lords inquiry, submitted by the Wandsworth Prison Improvement Campaign (WPIC), states that 1,025 of the prison’s 1,478 cell spaces lack automatic fire detection (AFD), the equipment that alerts staff the moment smoke appears inside a locked cell. WPIC’s evidence describes Wandsworth as having the worst such rate of any prison in England and Wales.
Instead, most Wandsworth cells rely on domestic smoke detectors fixed outside the cell door. These only sound once smoke has already escaped into the corridor, a delay that matters because research commissioned by the Ministry of Justice found a person locked in a cell can die within eight minutes of a fire starting. A coroner examining a fire death at another prison found there was “no reasonable prospect” of firefighters reaching a cell with breathing equipment in that time.
For the past two years, HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) told Parliament that every prison cell without fire detection would be fitted with it, or taken out of use, by the end of 2027. In March, prisons minister Lord Timpson told the House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee that HMPPS would not meet that deadline after all. Doing so, he said, would “inevitably, and significantly, breach critical capacity, resulting in the collapse of the proper functioning of the prison and wider criminal justice system.” No replacement date has been set.
The gap between promise and delivery is visible at Wandsworth itself. The prison’s K wing, 150 cells, was closed in October 2024 specifically to fit fire detection. When WPIC visited in February 2026, sixteen months later, the refurbishment was still at “a very preliminary stage.” A further visit in May found little had changed.
The watchdog wasn’t shown the plan
The Crown Premises Fire Safety Inspectorate (CPFSI), the government’s own fire regulator for prisons, inspected Wandsworth in December 2024 and required HMPPS to draw up an action plan addressing what it found. WPIC says CPFSI has refused to show them a copy of that plan. CPFSI has itself stated that “it is the professional judgment of the CPFSI that in-cell automatic fire detection must be provided”, precisely the equipment two-thirds of Wandsworth’s cells still lack.
Kier was appointed in July to deliver a £59 million fire safety programme at the prison, on top of £37.6 million HMPPS confirmed in December was already committed to wider improvement works there, including fire safety. Neither HMPPS nor Kier has said whether the new contract will complete fire detection across Wandsworth’s remaining cells, or by when.
Fires at Wandsworth are not always accidental. Evidence to the inquiry notes that some are started deliberately, in what campaigners describe as often a sign of distress rather than an intention to cause serious harm. Whatever the cause, the response time is the same for every cell without a detector.
The bigger picture
Wandsworth is not alone. The Howard League for Penal Reform, using government data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, found more than 60 prisons still waiting for fire safety work last autumn, and more than 40 still needing automatic detection fitted. Wandsworth is among 16 prisons that received a formal Crown Enforcement Notice from CPFSI in the two years to October 2025, and one of five sent a pre-legal-action letter by the Howard League in October, over what it called serious fire safety risks.
Andrea Coomber KC, the Howard League’s chief executive, said: “We know that at least 11 people have died in cell fires since the government accepted its responsibility to install automatic fire detection equipment. How many more lives will be lost?” The charity says the government has committed funding to reach only just over half of the roughly 19,000 cells nationally still without detection, with no date at all for the rest.
Wandsworth’s MP and ward councillors can be contacted about conditions at the prison through the usual council and Parliament channels. The Wandsworth Prison Improvement Campaign, the local group that submitted the parliamentary evidence behind this story, welcomes contact from residents.
If you are affected by anything in this article, Samaritans are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Call free on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org, or visit samaritans.org.
